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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24827098">when it rains, it pours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wokeboke/pseuds/wokeboke'>wokeboke</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Furry (Fandom), Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, introspective, relationships</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:01:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,536</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24827098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wokeboke/pseuds/wokeboke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A snippet of a story about friendships, futures, and running in the rain.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>when it rains, it pours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>don't mind me i'm just projecting</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Drip, drop. Plip, plap. The rain is incessant all around us, thrumming against the roof in a rhythm only nature knows how to beat.</p><p>The droplets trace splashing patterns on the grass as they fall. It’s mesmerizing to watch from where I sit, high and dry on the porch wood.</p><p>I hear the sound of the door sliding open, then closed. “Sure beats the sun,” Jesse says from behind me. I turn to him as he sits beside me, handing me a glass of water and then leaning back on his paws, sighing. “Now if only this heat would let up.”</p><p>“Mm.” If anything, the humidity’s gotten worse with the stifling rain, but he’s right—it’s better than cooking in your own fur under the scorching sun. “Thanks for the water, by the way.”</p><p>“Ah, don’t mention it,” he says, waving me off. “You have to stay cool when it’s hot. Speaking of…” He strips off his shirt, leaving him in nothing but his loose pair of red basketball shorts.</p><p>My cheeks heat up and I self-consciously take a drink to avoid staring at the soft-looking white patch of fur on Jesse’s bare stomach. “Feel any better?” I ask, purposefully looking out into the wet horizon.</p><p>“Loads,” he sighs. I can hear him inching closer to me, scooting his butt across the porch. Moments later, his pawtips brush mine as we both sit back, watching the summer rain. It’s silent, save for the constant musical chorus of rain and birdsong.</p><p>Eventually I shift forward, drawing my legs into a cross-seated position, casting about in my mind for something to talk about. “Looking forward to going away for school?” I settle on, propping my chin up on a paw as I turn my neck to look at him.</p><p> “Aw, why do you wanna talk about that?” he huffs. “It’s still summer. Let’s just have fun while it lasts.”</p><p>“If your idea of fun is waiting for the rain to stop, then I’m all for it,” I tease. His words strike a melancholic chord deep within me, though. When September rolls around, I won’t be seeing Jesse nearly as much, which means I’ll probably get over him. My heart aches at the thought.</p><p>He sits up suddenly, an adventurous gleam in his eye. “Who said anything about waiting for it to stop?” Before I can react, he springs up, offering me a paw. “C’mon, Benji, up you go!”</p><p>“Huh?” I ask, but I take his sweaty paw anyways, allowing him to pull me up ‘till I’m standing eye-to-eye, blue-to-brown, with him. “What’re you—?”</p><p>His beige muzzle splits into a grin, like he knows I’m going to agree with whatever he suggests. “Let’s go for a run.”</p><p>“Eh? I know you’re on the track team, but we’re gonna get wet!”</p><p>“That’s the point, silly,” he says, hooking a claw under one of the shoulders of my tank top. “Take off your shirt, it’ll be fun!”</p><p>“Taking off my shirt will be fun?” I ask cheekily, but I do it anyway, tossing it to the side.</p><p>His expression changes for a moment, something tender showing in his eyes, before he chuckles and it disappears. “You dork. Last one to the pond is a rotten egg salad!” And with that, he leaps off the porch, landing with a splash on the grass and taking off.</p><p>“Egg salad doesn’t rot!” I call after him, my heartbeat picking up. With a deep breath, I steel myself and enter the downpour.</p><p>Looking into the sky is like looking into an infinity of feathers, like flying through a wide-open tunnel of clouds, like breathing hard and fast, submerged underwater. It feels like the soggy earth beneath my paws, like warm droplets splattering on my snout, tinting my fur dark with rust, like releasing my built-up feelings into running momentum, fixated on the retreating back of an orange-furred fox, just out of reach. The rain is like a blanket, washing away the words coming up my throat.</p><p>“Egg salad <em>does</em> rot!” I hear Jesse yell, and I almost cry. Or laugh. The cold grass has turned to warm mud on the trail to the pond, but I manage to not slip and fall. My fur is wet enough as it is.</p><p>He slows down nearing the pond, and I find him standing on the muddy bank when I arrive. I skid to a hasty stop, nearly losing my balance if it weren’t for him catching me.</p><p>“Careful, you rotten egg salad,” he teases, arm wrapped around my bare shoulders. Everywhere he touches is warm and tingly, and I have a hunch it’s not because of the rain.</p><p>I straighten up, finding my footing as his arm slips off my shoulder naturally. “Um, thanks. I don’t know how you expected me to keep up with that head start of yours.”</p><p>“Maybe I didn’t,” he says, smiling into the pond’s horizon. I follow his gaze, but there’s nothing to see. The usually-smooth and broad surface is punctuated with countless ripples, distorting the reflection of the gray sky ahead. Waves lap at the muddy shore, another layer of rhythm to the symphony of nature around us.</p><p>“Ben.”</p><p>He looks at me, and I look at him, and I can see that some of the mirth is gone from his smile, replaced with something forlorn and tender like before, on the porch, before he’d shaken it off and taken off running. I start to reach out, wanting to hold him, anchor him to me, but I stop my arm before it can do anything I’ll regret.</p><p>He sees it, eyes flicking down and back to mine, and he takes a squelching step forward. “I’m not gonna run away again,” he says, one of his ears twitching with amusement. “Too tired for that, anyways.”</p><p>“Well, <em>g-good</em>! It’s important to conserve your energy in the summer,” I say. My excuse-floundering is obvious, but I still want to touch him, anchor <em>myself</em> to something meaningful before I sink under the waves.</p><p>He stops in front of me, where I have no choice but to face him or let my eyes roam around his chest. Choosing the lesser of two evils, I ignore the heat under my fur and tentatively meet his gaze.</p><p>“Can I?” he asks me softly, raising his paws as if to grab my arms. I nod, hyper-aware of my hindpaws sinking into the mud, agreeing without knowing what I’m agreeing to.</p><p>He takes me, pulls me into his arms, pressing our bodies flush together in the pouring rain, muzzle nestling into the crook of my neck, arms holding me tight and secure and warmer than the water coming from the sky, heat flowing from his body to mine to his and back again. I close my eyes and wrap my arms around him too, because it seems like the right thing to do.</p><p>“I’m gonna miss you, man,” Jesse murmurs, letting everything else go unsaid, dissolving into the rain.</p><p>“I’m not going anywhere,” I whisper, hugging him tighter. I can feel my ears burning, my heart pounding against his, matching each other beat for beat.</p><p>He draws back and looks at me, smiling a sad smile that I would do anything in the world to turn happy again. His paw comes up to gently card through the tuft of fur between my ears, slowing to a rest there for a serene moment.</p><p>“I know,” he says, lifting his paw off my head and tapping me lightly, casually on the elbow. “Let’s head home before you catch a cold.”</p><p>“Okay.” I pull myself free of the mud with two obscene sucking <em>pops</em>, grimacing as I feel it stick to my leg fur. Jesse snorts at that, to his credit holding in the rest of his laughter. “Ugh, don’t laugh. I’m gonna need a shower after this.”</p><p>“Race you home, then?” he suggests, like a switch, back to his carefree self. “First back is first to shower.”</p><p>“Do I get a head start?” I ask, shifting from paw to paw to hopefully avoid getting stuck again.</p><p>He makes a show of thinking about it, sighing, and conceding, “I suppose it’s only fair, I’ll give you five seconds,” which isn’t <em>nearly</em> enough since Jesse’s on the track team and the last time I ran for more than thirty seconds at a time was about five minutes ago, but I dash off anyways, unable to shake the weight at the bottom of my stomach, laden with what had happened while we were standing in the rain.</p><p>I’m beaten by the fox, of course; he passes me midway through our course, bedraggled tail wagging almost tauntingly in my face.</p><p>I love him, I realize. I love him and I can’t let him go.</p><p>I keep running even though I know I’m beat, like how the rain stays long past its welcome, leaving heavy droplets on every leaf and blade of grass and inch of my fur. I keep running, emboldened by the knowledge that the sun will appear again, visiting from whatever it’s busy doing behind those dark clouds.</p><p>“It’s pouring buckets out here!” I hear Jesse yell from ahead, and I couldn’t agree more.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>find me on twitter @wokeboke1</p></blockquote></div></div>
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